Day 579: Logopolis, Episode Three
Dear diary,
Good news, everyone! I’ve finally managed to understand what Logopolis (the place, not necessarily the story) is all about. I’ve always known the vague specifics of it, but never really got my head around it properly. It actually seems to be quite simple, now - in the same way that the Carrionites can use words as powerful science to make things happen, so too the people of Logopolis are able to use a string of complex mathematics to alter the universe around them. The power of these calculations are so powerful that they can’t be done in something as crude as a computer, because the equations would alter the state of the machinery itself. The only thing capable of withstanding it is a living mind. Ok, great, with it so far.
But that’s not necessarily the interesting part of the idea. I’d never really worked out how the whole idea of entropy factored in to this. The idea that the Universe should have died a long time ago, and that the peoples of this world are keeping it going through the use of their equations is fascinating, and I love that it was they who created the CVE that the TARDIS travelled through earlier in the season to get to E-Space - it just feels like quite a neat idea. It means that I also understand better now why the universe starts collapsing so quickly after the Master has enacted his plan.
Ah, yes, the Master. For every bit of good news, there usually has to be some kind of bad news to balance things out. I’m afraid that today, it has to be him. It feels like the production team have sat down with the plots to all of the Pertwee Master stories and realised that the usual pattern is for the Master to enact some kind of plan to dominate/kill/be generally evil (delete as appropriate), and then find he needs the Doctor’s help once he’s in too deep. In this story, all of that’s been boiled down to this single episode! The Doctor realises that the Master’s target is Logopolis... but... um... why? He doesn’t seem to realise what power the numbers here have, so he can’t be planning to use them to bend the universe to his will. As it stands, it looks like all of this was simply because he wanted to know why they’d build a big radar dish in the middle of their city. And the Doctor thinks that curiosity is his own downfall!
He gains the upper hand for a few minutes while he shuts everyone up, then instantly realises what a bad idea it is and grudgingly agrees to help the Doctor put it right again. I know he’ll turn on our hero in the next episode, but he genuinely seems to be taken aback by everything that’s happening here, so his whole plan looks ridiculously weak. It’s also not helped by the fact that Anthony Ainley has clearly been asked to play the part as a proper panto villain - there’s none of the subtleties of his Tremas performance in here. Even when he’s just having to push buttons on a remote control, it’s done with over-the-top-gestures and just generally hammy.
He’s somewhat offset by Tom Baker, though. For much of the episode, he’s on auto-pilot. That’s not always a bad thing - it suits the Doctor’s state of mind in this story quite well. As he strides through the streets of Logopolis, Tom has a look of just wanting to get it over with and be gone, which is somewhat fitting for a Doctor who’s well aware that this will be his final adventure in his current form. When he needs to hit the mark, though, dear God does he do it. His rant at the end of the episode about choosing his own company is glorious, and easily up there with the performance from Planet of Evil that I so often rave about. I thought he’d managed to capture some of that again in Full Circle, but nothing quite as wonderful as he does here - it’s a delight to see him giving such a powerful bit of acting one last time before leaving the series.
It’s also oddly true, in a way that I’d never noticed before. On the whole, the Fourth Doctor hasn’t really chosen his companions. If we want to dig further back, then it’s true that in the last decade or so, he’s not really chosen any of them. Liz and Jo were foisted on him by UNIT. Sarah Jane stumbled in to the TARDIS, but they got on well so he let her stay on. Leela forces her way in and sets them off before he can stop her. Professor Marius asked him to take K9, and Leela really wouldn’t have let him say no. Romana was sent by the White Guardian. Adric, as pointed out is a stowaway, Nyssa begged for his help, and Tegan has her curiosity to blame. The only companion he’s really ‘chosen’ for himself in the last few years is Harry - and even then it’s only because he wants to show off!
While I’m on the subject of companions... Tegan. It’s been an odd introduction for her character - possibly the oddest since Dodo (and perhaps even more so than that one!). Her three episodes so far have been something of an emotional roller coaster for her, but I really can’t decide if I’m liking the way she’s been written or not. She seems to settle in perfectly well when confronted with an alien world, taking it all in her stride. She’s believably upset when she discovers that her aunt has been murdered (the fact that you hear her crying in the background for a minute or so even after she’s left the screen and the focus isn’t on her is a beautiful touch), but then she’s all but forgotten it a few scenes later... by the end, when she’s against the Doctor and the Master teaming up, she seems to be fully up-to-speed with everything that comes with being a companion. I’m hoping that she’s rounded out as we go along - all the right elements are there, but they’re being thrown at us so thick and fast that none really have the chance to bed in.
And, actually, that’s not a bad analogy for Logopolis as a whole...
